10 New Ways That Bold Thinkers are Taking The Lead

Ambitious, visionary projects are creating new approaches to some of the world’s most urgent challenges.Ten highlights from this year’s world changing ideas awards.

- Adele Peters

01 Finding a Backyard Solution

Accessory dwelling units
Office of the Mayor, City of Los Angeles

Trent Wolbe is standing on freshly broken soil in his backyard in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park, giving a virtual tour of the structure that will soon stand there—a small two-story, two-bedroom house designed to reflect the neighborhood’s Craftsman aesthetic. “You get to the stairs through here, in the back of the kitchen,” he says, describing the thousand-square-foot layout of the home he plans to occupy with his partner, Grace Lee, and their toddler once the project is finished, a move that will allow them to rent out their existing house in front. They began this effort—to build what city planners commonly refer to as an “accessory dwelling unit” (ADU)—two years ago, and they admit to some weariness. “We’ve been exceedingly patient,” Wolbe says. Every home-construction undertaking is a challenge, but since May 2016, Wolbe and Lee have been pioneers in a real-world test for the City of Los Angeles, which is using their project to design a potential solution to the region’s housing crisis.